Saturday, October 22nd is the third weekly check-in. Nothing has to be perfect! Just check in by posting on this thread and mention where youāre at with your budgetober objectives.
This can be posting how much youāve spent this week, what problems you ran into with your plan, or asking for help if you need it.
For most of you, October 22nd is tomorrow! (If youāre on the other side of the international date line, then today is check-in day!)
After you post your check-in, myself or @Smacky will get you a special-edition week 3 budgetober badge. If you still havenāt gotten your badge by Sunday, please bat signal me - no pun intended (@ me) and Iāll make sure you do!
It can be hard to know without numbers, but with interest rates rising on consumer debt, and lending tightening, itās likely that paying off debt was a very sound choice. Imagine how much tighter everything would feel if you were still paying on the debt.
I know tomorrow is check in day for me, but Iām not going anywhere or spending any money before Sunday, so Iām checking in early. Once again, first column is budget and second column is expenses to date.
Dining Out
$100.00
$166.84
Groceries
$500.00
$249.92
Groceries - Meat & poultry
$250.00
$189.99
Allowances
$400.00
$1,953.71
Transportation
$1,650.00
$71.50
Home - property taxes
$1,400.00
$1,356.34
Home - utilities
$350.00
$331.72
Medical Insurance & copays
$350.00
$397.73
Home - miscellaneous
$100.00
$31.74
Internet fraud
$0.00
$0.00
Hobbies
$0.00
$76.14
Home - heat pumps
$350.00
$0.00
Home - front door
$200.00
$0.00
Charity
$0.00
$15.00
Dental Implant - stage 1
$2,250.00
$0.00
NOTES:
I paid my cc bill, so all thatās left on it is $302 CAD, which will come due next month, That was the big expense in Allowances.
Hubby is putting off car maintenance until November. Itās just seasonal stuff that needs doing.
Utilities got paid today, earlier than I thought.
I had to buy new medical equipment, which upped the medical costs. Plus our insurance went up.
I was fortunate enough to recover all my money from a scam, and have fees refunded by the bank.
Hobbies was a reference book Iād pre-ordered and forgotten about. It arrived a month early.
Heat pumps are scheduled for December.
Front door wonāt happen until next summer now.
Charity is the result of attending church in person again.
Stage 1 payment for the dental implant wonāt happen until November or December now.
OKAY well, here we are. Since my new goal is not spend the e-fund, I guess Iāll just show how badly these unforseen costs hit us this month
Survival Expenses 8,848/4,805 ā¦LOL. FUCK U UNIVERSITY HEALTH INS.
Small Pleasures 128/180 Outsourcing Drudgery / Buying Time: 558/519
Experiences 199/274 Learning & Growing 226/166
Irregular 0/170
15,598/5779
Hey guess what, thereās still money in the e-fund. If the e-fund means I would have sold my post-tax stocks. As it is, my family swooped in with a loan while our pro bono lawyer got us the estate shit late and now we have to wait wait wait to be repaid.
Um so I failed Budgetober? But I mean I guess I feel good knowing that I have wealth somewhere that could have held me over if I needed to? And also just grateful I am privileged enough to have family that can just send over some $$$$$?
I dunno, give me my badge, soothe the ego of my defeat by Life Circumstance.
For all u mathlete overachievers, the extra used up is my e fund disappearing into a thousand screaming souls
Ahhhhh week three and the eating out spending continues.
Iām still under budget, but work took an unexpected crappy turn this week and then add in the smoke we got hereā¦today I ended up eating out two meals for lack of planning ahead. But Iād held out until today!
Eating out alone: $85/100. Next week I must pack yummy things! Thereās lots of money left in the grocery budget line so Iām gonna go bananas buying yummy things when I shop this week.
Eating out with friends: $159/200.
Gas: $102/200. I think Iāll actually achieve $200 this month! Iāve been pulling all kinds of weird stuff to achieve this including dog sitting tonight for a friend who lives close to work so I can avoid driving.
hobbies/impluse spending: ended up doing a little bit of holiday present shopping (yarn for sweaters for niblings) and I threw in some yarn for me to practice indigo dyeing with. a sewing pattern I wanted was on sale, so i picked that up. I also had my expensive hair appointment and it was more than i budgeted for, but I still havenāt dipped into any of the savings funds yet, so I think Iām okay.
treats: better than last week, but i did get 3 treats. I blame the hair dye fumes and needing a babysitting activity last minute, which included timbits for them and coffee for me.
tracking is once again helping. iāve been ignoring grocery price increases for a while now but itās definitely showing up.
Went way over budget at StickerCon but no regrets <3 My snack budget is still mostly iced coffee. And made a little progress on gift shopping:)
Just to stay on topic for inflation, really feeling the effects on food delivery and the little treats I like to buy for myself. I havenāt adjusted my behavior to the new prices yet and itās a bit of a shock when my mindless afternoon pick-me-up is maybe 20% more expensive than I expected.
I didnāt commit to tracking transportation expenses (or other necessary things lol) because I donāt take regular trips, but my bus tickets for October were on average 10% higher than they were for September. Was going to ease into going out more often after my second booster, but transpo prices are discouraging me.
sticker pics
StickerCon: a lot of the sticker bundles were higher quality waterproof ones meant for laptops, water bottles, etc. Sticker sheets and washi tape were more expensive. Got some stickers as gifts too.
Part of our grocery order was refunded and we worked around it. We did get take away one night but I think thatās ok, we typically do that (or more) anyway.
We have now run out of the bulk bolognese sauce we cooked in week 1. Iāve also given up on fish, which is really expensive at the moment, because the older child is not keen on the texture anymore.
I think we will be ok. I could probably get under $1000 for the month if I really tried and ate down the pantry but also half the country is flooding at the moment so maybe I donāt want to eat down our food stores.
Update for the weekā¦generally successful with a quick stop in at the grocery store to pick up carrots and beans for chicken pot pie (two vegetables I cannot stand canned so they definitely arenāt in my stockpile), and then also picked up some ground turkey from the scratch-and-dent section. And then I went to the tea shop next door, and while I have replenished my supply of tasty chai, I also used up most of my āgrocery(other)ā budget for the month
However, other than that happy hour has been attended, pitcher of margaritas was bought for the table (along with a taco for myself), and that should be the end of my eating out for the month.
Will probably make another stop at the grocery store for fresh stuff later this week since I have no fresh fruit and my vegetable supply is onions and potatoes, but focusing on the canned/stored stuff I do have for meals. Fortunately the temperature is theoretically going to be dropping so I can do more stews and chilis.
